Once upon a time, some twenty-odd years ago, a little boy had two imaginary friends. Only his friends weren't imaginary, because his mum and a whole lot of other people had seen them, acknowleged they were there, and went on their merry way. Anyway, one day this boy met these two imaginary friends of his. His imaginary friends warned him about something that day. Warned him about what he would do, how it would happen. They told him that even though it was his choice, they knew him better. They knew he would do the right thing when the time came. He didn't understand then.

The little boy always seemed to attract bad things. From his best friend (another boy five years his senior) to even his mum (who wasn't much of a mum at all, leaving the boy to his own devices a good portion of the time), nothing went right from the boy. He was smart too, so he got teased at school a lot more than everyone else. It was obvious why he would be going down a bad road. Anger and hatred started bubbling up in him, and soon enough it would have to boil over.

Then, just about a year before that was supposed to happen, the not-so-imaginary friends showed up. They told him he would hurt people, kill them, when he got older. The boy was terrified. His friends gave him a shoulder to cry on and a way to contact them if he needed their help.

Barely thirty minutes after meeting them, his friends left. They said he needed them in another time and place, and rushed off. He barely got a chance to say goodbye.

Three years later, the boy was small and meek and trying so, so hard not to become who he was supposed to. But one of the mean kids on his block died that year. The boy didn't cause it directly - it was his older friend. He was scared and upset, so he locked himself in his room and called his imaginary friends. They were there in an instant, outside his window standing in front of what looked like a police box with tinted windows. He climbed out, latching onto his older friend and sobbing. It was all his fault, after all, and one death was just the first step and he'd go and go and…

His friends hugged him and calmed him and said that it really wasn't his fault in a way his mum never had. His mum always said it was his fault, and not once had she tried to right it later. The boy decided that his imaginary friends were really nice.

A couple days later, the boy met someone else on his block who would actually be his friend (the boy liked that word; friend). The other boy had sandy blond hair, wore jumpers that were always too big, and had an older sister who set up the clubhouse in the backyard and made it all nice. This blond boy wasn't scared of Jimmy, or freaked out by how smart he was. He just smiled in this way the other boy hadn't seen directed toward him in a very long time and asked if he would play. So they did.

Something bad happened though. Because of the boy's first friend, his new one got hurt. "Payback," said the teenager. "I warned you a long time ago, and now you've broken the rules." The blond boy got sent to the hospital with a concussion and an illness the doctor's couldn't figure out that seemed to right itself.

The boy called his imaginary friends again. It was two whole days before they came. He was scared and angry and shouted and shouted for them to just go away. They didn't listen. They would never listen. Instead, one of them picked the flimsy lock on the clubhouse door, and the other pulled him into a hug. And they stayed and let him cry it all out without a single word or comment, and neither of them questioned why he had a black eye and was wearing a sweater in the middle of July. The teenager got arrested for attempted murder and assault of a minor a few days later. The boy's imaginary friends stayed for nearly a week, and it was the longest the boy had ever been around them. He wasn't surprised when they left unexpectedly in the night. Why would anyone want to stay with him after all?

The boy's friend was able to leave the hospital soon after, and things went back to normal. They both healed, the boy's mum still mostly left him alone, and no one worried about the teenager next door anymore.

As years passed the boy became more and more shy. He was getting teased even more at school. People shunned him, called him a freak and stupid even though he got the highest grades in the class (not that they knew that). He started taking it to heart, and he wanted someone to talk to. He didn't call his imaginary friends, worried they wouldn't come.

Eventually his friend found the small rod with the blue button at the end. His friend had been getting worried. The boy (now a young teen) had been reclusive and jumpy, barely speaking at the best of times. So he pressed the button, hoping it was the same one that the boy talked about.

Both imaginary friend were there, once again, in an instant, asking what was wrong and who the blond was. He explained his worries to the two girls and they just sighed, shaking their heads, and off they went. He didn't know what the girls said, but his friend was better after that. Just a bit.

This went on for years, and the boy eventually became a young man, and the young man turned to an adult. He was shy and meek and often downplayed his own intelligence. A lot of the time he hated being as smart as he was, because being different was almost never good. But he had beat the odds. He didn't become who was supposed to. He didn't kill people or hurt them, and that was good.

This boy's name was James Moriarty (Jimmy to his friends), and this is how time was re-written.

{][TBC][}

A/N: Good? Bad? What the hell was I thinking? Opinions are loved.

Okay, I've already got a few chapters done, but this is going all over this place. Really hoping this doesn't suck. :)

I'd like to thank Artifical Asian on FG for the idea for this. We started a mini RP (22 pages and counting), we changed time, and this is the after effect. Thanks dude. *peace*

~Piki :B